Goodbye 2008. Now Get Lost.

We hit a rather rough patch this past year. Personally, professionally, heck even meteorologically (Chicago’s wettest year on record)–2008 delivered a seemingly unending series of heartbreaks, bad breaks, and just plain disappointments.

But somehow, despite the fact that nothing more separates 2008 from 2009 than an arbitrary draw of chronological numerics, I know the coming New Year will be different.

Because I will be different. And I believe a good number of people in our industry will be different as well.

We will be different because we won’t wait to see what changes technology and evolving media habits bring; we will be a part of those changes, riding the wave and trying new possibilities on web, mobile, and social platforms.

We won’t wait to see how clients react to those changes, we will stay a halfstep ahead of our clients, introducing changes and helping make sense of them.

And we won’t wait for consumer confidence to return to the market after hitting record lows in December, we will hustle it back ourselves with ideas and campaigns that build something even more meaningful than short term sales: long term brand faith.

I don’t have a lot of John Mellencamp on my iPod (though in fairness, the man is woefully underrated and puts on a surprisingly amazing live show), still just this once, I want to quote a lyric from Your Life Is Now: “CAUSE I BELIEVE YOU COULD CHANGE YOUR MIND AND CHANGE OUR LIVES.”

It’s not what happens to us, it’s what we make of what happens. So on to a New Year, new thinking, and bold, new experiences. I can’t wait.